In an investigation, Harvest Public Media found that when farmworkers are exposed to crop chemicals in the Midwest the incidents aren’t routinely tracked. “No agency or department keeps national records on how often such incidents happen. Record keeping varies so much that collating a national list using data from states is impossible,” the report said.
With around 1 billion pounds of pesticides applied to U.S. crops annually, each state has an agency responsible for enforcing pesticide regulations. Some of them record “misuse incidents,” such as unlawful applications of chemicals or pesticides drift. “But the agencies don’t necessarily distinguish accidents involving human exposure from those that affect crops, trees and other plants,” said Harvest Media. It asked six states, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, how many worker-exposure incidents were reported from 2013-17. Only Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado were able to answer.
Harvest Public Media said it would publish two more stories this week on pesticides and agriculture.